Wastewater treatment facilities are often considered to be hotspots for antibiotic resistance as a result of exposure to sublethal concentrations of antibiotics coupled to dense populations of enteric and environmental microbial communities. This chapter specifically focuses on antibiotic resistance genes from wastewater treatment facilities that are associated with mobile genetic elements. It overviews current understanding of plasmid‐, transposon‐ and integron‐associated antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater effluents and biosolids, assesses the fate of these elements in downstream environments, attempts to correlate between resistance genes and specific mobile elements, and underscores crucial knowledge gaps that need to be addressed in order to assesses the epidemiological potential of various wastewater‐derived mobile elements within the larger framework of antibiotic resistance. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) assemble high densities of enteric‐ and environmentally derived bacteria along with residual concentrations of antibiotics, disinfectants, and heavy metals, which potentially select for antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB).

Chapter 8